Women Vital in Global Fight Against AIDS

VIENNA, Jul 20, 2010 (IPS) - Empowering women could more effectively help in curbing the spread of HIV, Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and philanthropist said at the AIDS conference here Monday.

Speaking to reporters at the 18th International AIDS conference, he cited the example of Avahan, a national HIV prevention programme in India supported by the Gates Foundation co-founded by him. The active participation of women, he said, has worked successfully in slowing the spread of the virus among India's high risk population.

At the heart of Avahan's programme is empowering female sex workers in four Indian states to insist on the use of condoms. Data from some of Avahan's target areas suggests that the use of condoms by sex workers is responsible for a meteoric drop in the rate of sexually transmitted infections among people at risk. Several independent studies are under way to help evaluate Avahan's long-term impact.

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